Table tennis history – Table tennis vs ping pong
Table Tennis or Ping Pong (referred to as the t-term and p-term, respectively, throughout this article to avoid overuse of key phrases) – what is the correct term to describe the Olympic sport loved by many around the world? Depending on who you ask, you will probably get a different answer. Some people believe that the term t is the appropriate name to refer to a more serious level of play. Athletes who train for hours every day train to play table tennis, not ping pong, according to some.
The p term is a more relaxed term used to describe the recreational player. The group of kids playing in the basement or garage are playing ping pong, again the opinion of some. Many around the world share this logic, with the exception of China, where the term p remains an honorable title for a sport they dominate. The truth is, sport and gambling were once considered one in the same, and many still use the terms interchangeably.
The term t was first used in 1887 in a board game created by JH Singer in New York. The term p was not registered as a trade name until 1901 by John Jacques in England. He later sold the rights to the American game company Parker Brothers. This was a time of intense popularity for the game, and it was known by both names. At the height of its popularity, in December 1901, the “Table Tennis Association” and the “Ping-Pong Association” were formed in England. The two associations merged in 1903 to form “The United Table Tennis and Ping Pong Association”. This would seem to indicate that, at the time, the two terms were used to describe the same activity.
As interest in the game began to wane, the association disappeared in 1904. As interest in the sport began to revive in the 1920s, it was more frequently referred to using the term t simply to avoid trademark disputes with Parker Brothers. The company was extremely aggressive in protecting its rights to the p-term and threatened legal action where necessary. This fear of trademark infringement might explain why the sport’s governing body, the ITTF, uses the t-term instead of the p-term in its title.
No doubt a major divide was created when manufacturers were no longer able to use the p-term when describing the equipment they made for the sport. Manufacturers began labeling their items with the term t. At that time there was no difference between the teams apart from the brand. The simple act of Parker Brothers registering and banning the use of the term p created two camps of players.
In 1935, as player groups began to form in the United States, the American Ping Pong Association, whose members could afford to use the more expensive Parker Brothers equipment, the US Amateur Table Tennis Association, and the National Table Tennis Association merged to form the USATT. [http://www.usatt.org/]. The hope was that an association would be more effective in setting guidelines and meeting the expectations of the sport. People continued then, and continue to this day, to use both terms to describe the sport.
Whichever term you choose to use, just keep playing and encourage others to join you. The promotion of the sport, under whatever name you choose, is more important than a name fight.